So, as we expected the HTC Desire HD is official, and just as the majority of people in tech predicted, it does in fact look remarkably like the EVO they have over in the States, in fact it is pretty much just a European version of said Android smartphone.

The event in London kicked off with the traditional spiel regarding company growth and the likes, but once they got down to business not only did they hastily announce the Desire HD, we were also treated to a little teaser of Windows Phone 7. However, unlike our HTC Event predictions a couple of days ago, there has unfortunately been no announcement on the hardware side of things, instead they have stuck solely to Android devices this time around.
So let’s get down to the gory details, shall we? The HTC Desire HD, as expected, features a 4.3” display, which is obviously slightly larger than the original HTC Desire, but many have favoured the larger handsets already on the market, such as the HD2, but that’s an argument for another day.

In terms of spec, it features a 1GHz Snapdragon chip, 768MB of RAM and only 1.5GB of internal memory, which is equally as disappointing in this as it is in the Desire Z. Unfortunately though, the Desire HD uses just a 1230 mAh battery, which isn’t exactly the best battery to be found in an Android 2.2 (Froyo) phone, but the new, updated HTC Sense UI may be a bit more frugal with its power consumption.

In addition to the change to the display, they have also boosted the rear-facing camera, which now shoots 720p video alongside 8MP stills with dual flash.

Aesthetically, as I already mentioned, it looks pretty much identical to the HTC EVO, however for those that are unfamiliar with the EVO, let’s have a quick rundown. As you can see from the pictures it is a fully black device, rather than the bronze-ish tint to the original HTC Desire.

Availability is said to commence next month, with the handset being exclusive to Vodafone network here in Europe (unless you buy it sim-free) and it will be the first mobile phone to feature HTC’s new HTCSense.com functionality which can remotely backup your data, track it if lost and remotely erase the data if need be.

So there you have it, it looks like a definite upgrade from the HTC Desire or Nexus One, just take a look at the preview video below.

What do you think to the HTC Desire HD as the latest Android-based handset? I’m thinking as long as the battery is reasonable given the larger screen, it’ll be another great alternative to the iPhone 4.

UPDATE: We’ve now had one of these handsets into Zath HQ to test out for ourselves, find out what we thought of it in our HTC Desire HD review.